I would unhook her TiVo and hide it and tell her you sold it to someone at work or something. Then see how she handles the withdrawls and if she starts scheduling things on yours. If after a while she shows that she can handle it, but you are wishing you had a second one for conflict resolution, pull the other one out and hook it back up. However, if during your test, you also find you can live just fine with only one, then you really can sell the second one.

As for which to keep, as an owner of an upgraded series 1, I would prefer a S2. I'd like folders and HMO and TTG. It should be fairly simple to add another (or larger) drive to your wife's S2 so it has the capacity of your current S1.

Your HMO and T2G comments are a really good point. If I ever want to use those features I better keep the series 2. I wonder if I could take a drive out of the series one and put it in the series 2? I know weakknees sells kits for adapting the power supply to handle two drives and also a better fan to keep the series 2 cooled with two drives. I wonder if I could buy their kit, minus the extra drive if I've already got one. Or would this drive have to be somehow prepared/configured first in some way, since it'd be coming from a series 1 and going to a series 2.

I guess I'm getting a little off topic here, as this question is better suited for the help forum.

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I can understand your wifes problem. I had this problem a while back when I had my TV tuner card and was recording a lot of shows. I was keeping them for no apparent reason.

I do archive stuff off of my TiVo's now with TTG, but it's a very select group of programming. Any and all poker shows ( involving professionals that is, not celebrities ) and some other Discovery shows and stuff like that.

It sucks to be consumed and burdened like this and I can sympathize. It may be helpful to get rid of them or seek conseling if she can't deal with it on her own.

It's not a big deal, in my opinion, but it's definitely worth rectifying.

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could set kids show to Keep at most 2 or some such low number....will only have 2 at any given time but they will alwasy be there.

To tell the truth My wife finally deleted those old 3 SPs for child shows. But a few weeks ago she convinced me to add 1 child SP to my TiVo She said she wants to watch an episode or two of this new show before deciding whether to keep or delete the SP. If she keeps it, she'll archive to tape (or get me to do that). But this was all before her recently renewed committment to stop watching TiVo. I haven't asked her yet how this effects the children SP on my TiVo.

Oh and as for the KAM=2, she prefers 'Keep all episodes'. I prefer KAM=1. I actually compromised with her and got her to agree with KAM=4 on this new SP.

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We have had this problem, too. We upgraded our first Tivo and purchased a second. I generally watch the upstairs tv so it's loaded with my stuff and stuff for our son. The downstairs unit has all the programs we usually watch together, stuff for our son & my husband's stuff.

I tend to fall asleep during alot of things we watch together so I try to catch up on them. We have a rule - we keep 2 episodes of shows we watch together on the downstairs unit. If I fall asleep or miss for some reason it's my responsibility to catch up. If I dont it's my loss. Of course - there are exceptions for mini-series or season finales, etc.. I STILL haven't seen the rest of The 4400 but being married for 10 years my husband knows that he can't get away with deleting that one!

Wouldn't the home media option make it easier also? We don't have it, but you would be able to access the shows from multiple units.

If you have kids you could always take the kids for the day and order her to eat popcorn and ice cream and catch up!

When I read this, my instinct was to immediately post, "Oh! I-i-if you do that, ca-can I have the old one?"

Then I read the rest of the thread. I don't think our hoarding activities should be combined. (There's something to be said for non-localized archive security anyway.)

I was going to suggest getting three Series2 boxes and using HMO to record the shows you both like on one, shows each of you like on your own, and use HMO to transfer from the common unit for shows one of you wants to keep and the other to eliminate.

But at least I know who to ask when I need to get a copy of some early 21st century television programs (especially commercials which tend not to survive). Um... she has labeled the tapes, has an organized filing system, and databased them, right?

You might also want to consider redesigning the shelves so that you can put them tightly against each other and spread any two sections apart to access them. Check some really big (book) libraries for ideas.

Lastly, make sure you have a system for their safe destruction en masse before the raid by the feds. Or get someone that can convince a jury that she is really only time-shifting. At the very least, get her to watch some of the first tapes and erase them to demonstrate that this is only temporary time-shifting and not eternal retention.

Dont take this the work way but, see is like an adict. Try having a hroing adict quit will leaving heroing easliy accesible. It does not work.
Sounds like she is a horder. Does she do this with anything else...i knew someone who had clsets full of string, yes string, just incase they everneed some they had 10,000 miles to choose from.
While your worried about staying married to her i think she is already married to the TiVo Guy. It may be time for her to join TA, TiVo Annonumus. No really dont be affended but i think this may be a bigger problem then you can handel on your own.

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Dont take this the work way but, see is like an adict. Try having a hroing adict quit will leaving heroing easliy accesible. It does not work.
Sounds like she is a horder. ... No really dont be affended but i think this may be a bigger problem then you can handel on your own.

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This may seem mean. But IF a 2nd TiVo is too expensive (It IS the BEST solution), then you should try the following.

Set Seasame Street and Wiggles on a 5 show max (and at low quality). My daughter is happy to see Elmo and not the recording quality. 1) She shouldn't be in front of the TV for 5 hours at a time.. and every day a NEW hour of TV is added. (Personally I have mine to a 2 show max and it works out in our house) but the 5 show max is for your wife appeasment.

The one that will get you in trouble. Remove ALL the Keep Until you delete of all new recorded shows. Let them get recorded and AUTOMATICALLY removed.

WHEN she starts throwing pots.... explain the unit only has SO much room. She HAS to watch shows or else it fills up.

Finally make a season pass for TLC's CLEAN SWEEP. Have your wife watch this show.

1 Tivo for you and your child
1 Tivo for your wife.. .and let your WIFE try to keep hers working.... IS the best solution.

Another thing to consider... Calculate how many hours you and and your wife actually DO spend watching your TV shows. Then you have to make some hard decisions since the weekly shows MUST fit into the amount of time you have to enjoy the TV.

Remember whole shows can be written off and "caught up" once the season is released on DVD.

My wife now knows about this thread, but hasn't read it. Well, actually I told about this thread a long time ago, but only recently have I brought up the idea of her reading it. Question: Do you think I should show it to her? I think it's funny and it makes me laugh when I read it, but I'm not sure if she'll take it that way. I kind of briefly (very briefly) described it to her, and she's not sure either how she'll react. Maybe I better play it safe and not let her see it.

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So you mentioned two weeks ago that she now knows about This Thread and might or might not want to read it. But you DIDN'T mention her current TiVo status. Last we'd heard, she was thinking about getting rid of hers and had a Season Pass (for a kid's show) set up on yours. So....did she get rid of the TiVo? Has she taken over yours? Has your child (who was, at the time, too young to appreciate some of the shows she was recording for him---MY kid, who is younger than yours, is now watching Reading Rainbow and Between the Lions) EVER watched ANY of these shows?

I wouldn't recommend that she read the thread (I mean, she CAN---I wouldn't prevent her if she was determined to) because I don't think it will make a difference. Psychiatrists and lightbulbs and all that.

So you mentioned two weeks ago that she now knows about This Thread and might or might not want to read it. But you DIDN'T mention her current TiVo status. Last we'd heard, she was thinking about getting rid of hers and had a Season Pass (for a kid's show) set up on yours. So....did she get rid of the TiVo? Has she taken over yours? Has your child (who was, at the time, too young to appreciate some of the shows she was recording for him---MY kid, who is younger than yours, is now watching Reading Rainbow and Between the Lions) EVER watched ANY of these shows?

I wouldn't recommend that she read the thread (I mean, she CAN---I wouldn't prevent her if she was determined to) because I don't think it will make a difference. Psychiatrists and lightbulbs and all that.

To answer these questions:

In her attempt to break herself of her TiVo/archiving habit, she and I did the following: Her TiVo room was filled with countless tapes, plus her TiVo, 2 TVs and 3 VCRs. We moved all her tapes upstairs to a different room, and moved her TiVo to the family room, which is where my TiVo was, and I moved my TiVo off to the living room. (We also moved her TVs and VCRs upstairs.) As far as I can tell (but I should ask her to make sure), she's mostly stopped her mad habit of archiving tapes. I haven't been putting together new bookshelves nor have I been seeing packages of blank tapes sitting around, so I think this is a safe bet. But she hasn't 100% stopped using the TiVo. She simply watches it in the family room now. But I think she's not using it to the excessive extent that she used to.

Supposedly, under this arrangement, she was giving me her TiVo, and I was going to move a lot of my SPs to it, but I don't see this happening, because the space is still mostly filled up on it with her stuff. We're in the off season anyway, so my SP's are dormant, so I'm waiting until fall to decide which TiVo to keep my SPs on. I have a feeling I'm still going to keep my SPs as manual recording on my own unsubbed TiVo, and that what we've really accomplished here is to shuffle what rooms the TiVos were in, but at least she doesn't seem to be archiving to tape so much, so that's something. I think her To Do list is no longer filled with stuff designed solely for archiving. But she still has her To Do List for stuff she wants to watch, hence she's using most of the space on her TiVo. But still, I did move one of my SPs to it, with a KAM=5, and the # eps I have on there really is usually around 3 because of the space limitations. This is a low priority SP of mine, so it doesn't bother me.

I'm certainly not greedy and don't expect that I should get two TiVos, and she gets zero, but it was her original idea to do this because she felt she was spending too many hours watching TiVo. But as you can see, I think she really still owns a TiVo, though she doesn't come out and admit it. But she's no longer complaining that she's neglecting her other duties because of TiVo, so I'm hoping her habit is under control, but admittedly it's been a long time since I've really talked to her about this.

Oh, and on my TiVo (the unsubbed one), she doesn't have a single thing sitting on it, nor does she have any SP on it, so this is truly my 100% TiVo.

And as for the question about my 5 year old son (who, btw, is autistic)... he still has never watched any show she's ever offloaded to tape. He rarely has watched shows directly from Now Playing, but mainly he likes to watch VHS tapes and DVDs.

Oh, and finally, after thinking about it, I've decided not to show her this thread. As things stand now, I don't think she'll stumble onto it either, because she hardly ever does any internet surfing.

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I've solved this problem before by buying a second TIVO. In my house, we now have a He-vo and a She-vo.

Another good idea is to never set up a season pass to save until you delete just set options to save until space is needed, save at most 1 or 2 episodes, record only first run episodes only, whenever possible.

Then, once something is recorded, you can save it indefinitely if you really want to.

Every once in a while you just have to give your wife the ultimatum that if she doesn't watch something or save it to VCR tape within so many days, her options are that you will either delete it, buy a new TIVO for yourself or seek a divorce, her choice.

Every once in a while you just have to give your wife the ultimatum that if she doesn't watch something or save it to VCR tape within so many days, her options are that you will either delete it, buy a new TIVO for yourself or seek a divorce, her choice.

I never threaten divorce because she already uses that word a lot already. I'm afraid that if I threaten it, she'll say "okay - let's do it."

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Sounds like a lot of work, but it also DOES sound like some progress has been made (I guess you'll really see when the new TV season starts). It's great that she doesn't have ANY shows on your TiVo. If it were me, I think as long as that boundary was maintained, I wouldn't worry too much about what she does with hers. I can see how you feel that you having two TiVos is unfair, but her having two TiVos is equally unfair.

I do remember that your son is autistic and I don't think you've ever mentioned how moderate/severe it is (although, I know any level is challenging---we have friends with high-functioning autistic kids who seem to be absolutely charming the few times I've met them who still present many challenges to their families). I was more asking whether he's watched any shows as a gauge of her compulsion to preserve television for future need than because of his developmental needs. I don't know if this would be of any use to you, however, but we do have one autistic friend who made some real progress on his speech because he was fascinated with the Thomas the Tank Engine videos (which my son also adores). He watched the videos, then his mother gave him a small wooden Thomas engine and he immediately starting playing with and talking about the engine when previously he talked about almost nothing/no one at all. He is younger than both your son and mine, however.

Oh, the other thing I'd suggest to you is to go ahead and subscribe/upgrade the drive on your TiVo. Right now it seems like you're having to suffer the trial of manual recordings and a small drive for fear of feeding your wife's compulsion and there's no reason to punish yourself, particularly if she's getting things under control. If she DOES start to monopolize your box again, then you can just lock it up (perhaps get a fireproof box and drill holes in the back for the cables----then unlock the lid when YOU need to use it and lock it again when you're done) if you need to.

I do remember that your son is autistic and I don't think you've ever mentioned how moderate/severe it is

I'd say he's moderate to severe. He's 6 years old now, and still hardly says any words, and communicating anything to/from him is still a challenge. Showing him photos works fairly well though, but you can only communicate so much through photos.

And now for an update: My TiVo is broken!

It's been showing the signs for awhile. At first occasional pixelation, then frequent stuttering and pixelation, and sometimes it just freezes and the remote does nothing, and I have to reboot. Lately the stuttering and freezing is so bad, that it's really unusable. And when it freezes, it won't record anything. My research in the Help forum suggests that it's likely a bad hard drive.

So for now, I've put all my SPs onto my wife's TiVo. Unfortunately the free space still hovers around zero, so it's tricky watching my shows before they delete.

I still refuse to use KUID on my shows, but most of my wife's stuff still has KUID, so this makes it hard to watch my shows without fear of deletion. I just approached my wife the other day and requested she curtail her use use of KUID. She says that any show she doesn't 100% know she's going to watch it in the next couple of days, she's going to use KUID.

It's still true though that she doesn't archive to tape anymore. I'm trying to decide between the following options:

1) Spend over $100 to get a new drive from weaknees and fix my TiVo
2) I have a spare drive I'm not using sitting in my house, so maybe I can fix it for free. But I don't know how to do this, and I'm not quite sure where to get the instructions for how to do it. I saw some Hinsdale instructions, but it looks like it's designed for upgrading, not replacing a hard drive. My case might be complicated too because I might have two drives in there now (at 194 hours, I suspect it's two drive), and I don't know if one or both are bad.
3) Since I never subscribed my TiVo to begin with, I could give up and buy a new TiVo. I don't need much space on it. 40 or 80 hours would be enough for me.

#2 is appealing because it saves money, but #3 is appealing because it won't take work on my part. My other issue is my lack of subscription. If I go #3, I'll have to subscribe unless I get another used series 1. But I've been wishing to be subscribed because I've lost a couple of shows to schedule changes I didn't catch in time, and a subscribed TiVo would have caught it for me. It's also so much easier to set up recordings when you're subscribed. So if I subscribe, #3 is viable, and has the extra benefit of making HMO possible. (Series 1 doesn't support HMO.)

But my wife often resists me spending more $ because she thinks if we need two TiVos, then she should stop hogging her TiVo and let me have most or all of it. She says this but it never seems to happen. I think I'm going to have another talk with her soon, because my TiVo is broken. Either she stops hogging her TiVo, or I buy a new second one, or fix the one I've got and subscribe it.

I also can't decide whether to subscribe for $6/ month or go lifetime for $300.

Actually, I'm starting to think that if I fix the series one, I should go for the $6/month because that way if I decide I want a series 2 later, I'm not locked into the series one. Also, the series one is getting to be an old unit, and I don't know if I should fork out lifetime for it.

I think I'm leaning towards fixing it for free ala Hisdale, and then paying $6 / month to subscribe it. I just need to educate myself on how to fix it, and how to diagnose the current drives that are in it. (Also, I'm told that dual drives are somehow 'married', and can't be split up. What if one drive is good and the other is bad? Is there really no way to reformat the good drive and keep it? Make it into a one drive/smaller system? It doesn't make sense to me that you can't do that.)

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The Tivo Upgrade Center has all kinds of advice on upgrading or replacing hard drives.

Since your Tivo is in sad shape, you probably can't get a good image from it. I can suggest Instantcake, which is easy to use and can turn any hard drive into one that your Tivo can use. It costs $20. http://www.ptvupgrade.com/products/instantcake/

Since your Tivo is in sad shape, you probably can't get a good image from it. I can suggest Instantcake, which is easy to use and can turn any hard drive into one that your Tivo can use. It costs $20. http://www.ptvupgrade.com/products/instantcake/

I thought there were were people in the upgrade forum willing to give an HDR212 image for free. (That's my model.) I'm not sure of this, but I think I should check into it before paying the $20.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZeoTiVo

if you can figure which is the good hard drive you can use it and chuck the other. It will mean reformatting the drive and losing everything on it of course.

Yes, I really don't mind if I lose everything on the series 1. I was pretty much caught up when it went bad anyway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZeoTiVo

if it was me I would fix the sereis 1 and hold off buying until more is known about the new cable card model with dual tuner. Dual tuner would solve a lot of your TiVo problems

I'm not sure about that course of action. By having two physically separate TiVos, it enforces separation of space between my wife an me. In effect, I "own" my space, and she owns her space. With one dual tuner TiVo, she could conceivably take over the whole TiVO.

Also, if I went the dual tuner route, I bet I'd have to resubscribe lifetime to it, but admittedly I could sell my current lifetime unit and get some money back. But now that I think of it, I'll certainly keep this in mind because sometimes I have conflicts between my own shows I need to resolve, and if my TiVo was dual tuner, it could be handy. So I agree with you that fixing my old TiVo makes sense because it keeps my options open as far as eventually getting a dual tuner model.

I wonder when those are going to come out? I have analog Time Warner cable. Do you supose the dual tuner cable card model will work for me?

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couple of thoughts
Owning ones own space is a positive thing... especially if one of those people like to keep (lots of) things.

Second with regards to your wife, just to kinda flip this around a bit, how about suggesting she archive her shows on to DVD via MyDvd ect. It'd give her something to do with the shows & ulitmatly they'd take up less room then tapes. Plus, she'd eventually have to decide if the show was worth her time to tranfer, edit, trancode & burn. My guess is that eventually she'd decide to keep less shows.